How to keep your kids safe online

The internet is a brilliant tool that benefits our lives in countless ways.

It's not without its downsides however, particular when it comes to kids.

Children are at risk when they enter the digital landscape which can see them exposed to content they're far too young to grapple with and even real-live predators. They can very easily stumble across porn, hate group and general misinformation too.

Still, there are steps that you can take to minimise the risk and they're pretty easy to instigate.

The first and easiest step to keeping your little ones safe is to monitor their online activity.

Kids love their devices and it's up to use to teach them how to use them sensibly. Image: Getty.

Advice on monitoring often focuses on keeping the computer in a shared family area, yet in the age of wireless connections and Internet-enabled smartphones, this is increasingly difficult.

Similarly, young people may control their own online details, such as passwords and web browser histories.

Still, parents can get around these issues by doing the following:

Discussing details of appropriate online topics; installing stringent privacy settings and parental monitoring (looking over the shoulder or line of sight supervision).

It may also help to instigate time limits on screen time, limits on when internet access is available and perhaps, signing an internet agreement if children are slightly older.

Want more parenting tips and tricks plus a whole lot of laughter? Tune into our new podcast Honey Mums by clicking the link below.

Chances are your kids will stumble across inappropriate content at some point. Given that, it's a good idea to explain to them what to do if this happens. It's also worth talking about what cyber-bullying looks like and also, how to tackle it.

Remember, you're in charge and can block access to specific sites, block in-app purchases and restrict chat features too, says the Federal Government. Learn more tips and tricks here.